SDS100/SDS200: Sds100 reception issues with GPS enabled

JRR4607

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Does anyone else have this problem with the sds100 handheld scanner on GPS Auto. I was in Temple Texas and in Belton today and never hurt anything come across the radio. I checked the frequencies and they are all correct. I had my other handheld scanner which is the GRE and had it in search mode and her all the radioactivity with police but never heard anything on the SDS 100.
 

a417

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Does anyone else have this problem with the sds100 handheld scanner on GPS Auto. I was in Temple Texas and in Belton today and never hurt anything come across the radio. I checked the frequencies and they are all correct. I had my other handheld scanner which is the GRE and had it in search mode and her all the radioactivity with police but never heard anything on the SDS 100.
Does your unit recieve a known good signal, like an NOAA All Hazards weather channel?

If you don't recieve this, or another known good channel, it's either programming or a hardware issue. This has been discussed on here before.
 

JRR4607

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Yes it receives Noah weather radio with no problem in that area also the p25 signal picks up but picks up only Sheriff's but no police which is weird
 

MStep

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Does anyone else have this problem with the sds100 handheld scanner on GPS Auto. I was in Temple Texas and in Belton today and never hurt anything come across the radio. I checked the frequencies and they are all correct. I had my other handheld scanner which is the GRE and had it in search mode and her all the radioactivity with police but never heard anything on the SDS 100.
May have been mentioned, but do you have all the service types turned on ?
 

RMason

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the p25 signal picks up but picks up only Sheriff's but no police which is weird

It is encouraging that you are receiving the Bell County Sheriff. Are you receiving them on the Bell County P25 system? Which site? What talkgroups are you receiving?

By default only EMS Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, Law Dispatch, Custom 1, and Multi-Dispatch are enabled.

For Belton PD, it looks like you should make sure you have Law Talk and Law Tac service types enabled. I don’t see anything in the db using Law Dispatch.

For Temple PD, you should get Temple PD dispatch with Law Dispatch service type enabled. Other tgs will require Law Talk and Law Tac.
 

donc13

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Does anyone else have this problem with the sds100 handheld scanner on GPS Auto. I was in Temple Texas and in Belton today and never hurt anything come across the radio. I checked the frequencies and they are all correct. I had my other handheld scanner which is the GRE and had it in search mode and her all the radioactivity with police but never heard anything on the SDS 100.
Sounds to me that you have the range in the location settings set too low.

I am also not aware of an "area" code setting, did you mean "zip code"?
 

JRR4607

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WACO TX
It is encouraging that you are receiving the Bell County Sheriff. Are you receiving them on the Bell County P25 system? Which site? What talkgroups are you receiving?

By default only EMS Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, Law Dispatch, Custom 1, and Multi-Dispatch are enabled.

For Belton PD, it looks like you should make sure you have Law Talk and Law Tac service types enabled. I don’t see anything in the db using Law Dispatch.

For Temple PD, you should get Temple PD dispatch with Law Dispatch service type enabled. Other tgs will require Law Talk and Law Tac.
All LawTalk and LawTac are enabled. I was receiving Bell County sheriff on conventional not p25 system.
 

JRR4607

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Sounds to me that you have the range in the location settings set too low.

I am also not aware of an "area" code setting, did you mean "zip code"?
I have the range set at 50 miles.
And yes I meant zip code sorry not area code.
 

RMason

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All LawTalk and LawTac are enabled. I was receiving Bell County sheriff on conventional not p25 system.
Ok - it looks like we need to focus on getting reception on the Bell County P25 system.
Bell County (P25) Trunking System, Bell County, Texas

Is the Bell County P25 system programmed in the SDS100?

Are you using the Full Database? Have you updated the full database on the SDS100 from sentinel? (What is the date of the database on the scanner? (Menu -> Manage Full Database -> Information)

Did you program a Favorite List? How did you create it - did you create it with software (Sentinel, Proscan, etc), or by hand? What site(s) did you enter? Are all frequencies programmed? Are TGIDs entered for all talk groups of interest? Have you confirmed that the programming was written to the scanner? Is the Favorite List enabled? Are you scanning in ID Scan or ID Search?

Are any programmed QuickKeys enabled? (I would suggest not programing quick keys until you are able to monitor the system)
 

RMason

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Are you using the Full Database? Have you updated the full database on the SDS100 from sentinel? (What is the date of the database on the scanner? (Menu -> Manage Full Database -> Information)
From your other thread that you started, it appears that you are using the full database. Have you updated the full database? The database shipped in a new SDS100 is not current. If you have not updated the full database on the scanner, you will be missing several frequencies from the Bell Simulcast site. The July 11, 2021 version of the sentinel database contains only 9 of the 24 control channels listed in the RR database. It is likely that the control channel currently in use is not included - which would prevent you from being able to monitor the Bell County P25 system. Make sure that you have updated the full database on the SDS100 using sentinel.

From the SDS100 Owners Manual:
UPDATING THE DATABASE​
1. To update the scanner’s database, connect it to your PC using the supplied USB cable. Select Mass Storage.​
2. Next, in Sentinel, select UPDATE/Update Master HPDB. This updates the database in Sentinel, but does not update the database in the scanner.​
3. Finally, write the new database to your scanner by selecting Scanner/Write to Scanner.​

Good luck.
 

hiegtx

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Dallas, TX
From your other thread that you started, it appears that you are using the full database. Have you updated the full database? The database shipped in a new SDS100 is not current. If you have not updated the full database on the scanner, you will be missing several frequencies from the Bell Simulcast site. The July 11, 2021 version of the sentinel database contains only 9 of the 24 control channels listed in the RR database. It is likely that the control channel currently in use is not included - which would prevent you from being able to monitor the Bell County P25 system. Make sure that you have updated the full database on the SDS100 using sentinel.
I suspect this may be a large part of the problem. If the database in the scanner has not been updated, then the version of the database in use may well have been created before Temple PD & other Bell County agencies moved to the P25 system. At the creation date of the old database (presuming it has not been updated in Sentinel, and then written to the scanner, the various public safety agencies in Bell County were either using conventional frequencies, or were using the now deprecated EDACS system.

I have the range set at 50 miles.
And yes I meant zip code sorry not area code.
Have you installed Sentinel?
If so, look down in the lower left corner of the screen & see what date is being displayed.
1708915760640.png
2/18/2024 is the current at the moment. After this weekend's update is processed, then sometime after noon or so tomorrow, 2/26, database version 02/25/2024 should be available for download into Sentinel.
 

JRR4607

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Okay, so I updated the frameware into the scanner and also updated the database into the scanner from Sentinel. What I am seeing now is there is one frequency of 770.556250. That is listed under Bell County (P25). That frequency is not showing to be in my scanner even after I updated it. All of the other frequencies are showing what could be causing this.
 

aimedtoannoy

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May 23, 2013
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Geneva, Ohio to Temple, TX
Okay, so I updated the frameware into the scanner and also updated the database into the scanner from Sentinel. What I am seeing now is there is one frequency of 770.556250. That is listed under Bell County (P25). That frequency is not showing to be in my scanner even after I updated it. All of the other frequencies are showing what could be causing this.
Sorry to barge in. Which tower are you trying to listen on? 770 is Troy. I personally have never really heard anything on the Troy tower idk if I’m close enough but I’m in temple. I run a raspberry pi syncing to Broadcastify calls. I’ve always had issues with reception with both towers this past 9 months or so I’ve been tinkering.
 

dave3825

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After you updated the database, and went to write to the scanner, did you check the box for "Force Write Full Database" ?


1709002508308.png
 

aimedtoannoy

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It is encouraging that you are receiving the Bell County Sheriff. Are you receiving them on the Bell County P25 system? Which site? What talkgroups are you receiving?

By default only EMS Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, Law Dispatch, Custom 1, and Multi-Dispatch are enabled.

For Belton PD, it looks like you should make sure you have Law Talk and Law Tac service types enabled. I don’t see anything in the db using Law Dispatch.

For Temple PD, you should get Temple PD dispatch with Law Dispatch service type enabled. Other tgs will require Law Talk and Law Tac.
Belton pd if I remember no longer self dispatch. They use one of the sheriff channels for main comms. I remember seeing something in the wiki about it.
 

JRR4607

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WACO TX
Sorry to barge in. Which tower are you trying to listen on? 770 is Troy. I personally have never really heard anything on the Troy tower idk if I’m close enough but I’m in temple. I run a raspberry pi syncing to Broadcastify calls. I’ve always had issues with reception with both towers this past 9 months or so I’ve been tinkering.
Bell County Tower
 

dave3825

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I updated the frameware into the scanner and also updated the database into the scanner from Sentinel. What I am seeing now is there is one frequency of 770.556250. That is listed under Bell County (P25). That frequency is not showing to be in my scanner even after I updated it. All of the other frequencies are showing what could be causing this.

RFSSSiteNameFreqs
1 (1)001 (1)Troy769.10625c769.83125c770.55625c
10 (A)010 (A)Bell Simulcast855.4625c855.4875c855.7375c856.0875c856.4625c856.4875c856.7375c857.0875c
857.2375c857.4625c857.4875c858.0375c858.2375c858.2625c858.4625c858.4875c
858.7375c859.0375c859.2375c859.2625c859.4625c859.4875c859.7375c859.7625c


That 770 freq is Troy site, not Bell site.

Do you see any of the Bell 85x.xxx freqs in the scanner?


Why not use Sentinel and use its Add Channels On range feature? You tell it your zip code, the range you want, and what service types, and it will create a favorite list in Sentinel. Then you can delete anything your not interested in, and write that to the scanner.
 
Last edited:

JRR4607

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WACO TX
RFSSSiteNameFreqs
1 (1)001 (1)Troy769.10625c769.83125c770.55625c
10 (A)010 (A)Bell Simulcast855.4625c855.4875c855.7375c856.0875c856.4625c856.4875c856.7375c857.0875c
857.2375c857.4625c857.4875c858.0375c858.2375c858.2625c858.4625c858.4875c
858.7375c859.0375c859.2375c859.2625c859.4625c859.4875c859.7375c859.7625c


That 770 freq is Troy site, not Bell site.

Do you see any of the Bell 85x.xxx freqs in the scanner?


Why not use Sentinel and use its Add Channels On range feature? You tell it your zip code, the range you want, and what service types, and it will create a favorite list in Sentinel. Then you can delete anything your not interested in, and write that to the scanner.
Yes I am seeing all the Bell County frequencies in the scanner.
For the Troy site, I'm only seeing both 76x.xxx but not the 70x.xxx.
 
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